California Evidence Code Section 1563 controls what a non-party business can charge when it produces records in response to a subpoena, and it puts that cost on the party who issued the subpoena. Every reasonable expense the business incurs in locating, copying, and delivering the records is reimbursable, but the statute caps several of the most common charges and sets rules about when payment is due, how disputes get resolved, and how many witness fees a single records subpoena can generate.1California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563 – Producing Business Records
What the Subpoenaing Party Pays
The statute treats the requesting party as the payer for the full cost of compliance. That includes copying, clerical time to pull the records, postage, and any third-party retrieval fee if the records live in offsite storage. Some of those costs are capped at fixed amounts; others come in at actual cost.
- Standard copies of documents 8½ by 14 inches or smaller: $0.10 per page.
- Microfilm copies: $0.20 per page.
- Oversize documents or records requiring special processing: actual reproduction costs.
- Clerical time for locating and making records available: up to $24 per hour per person, billed in quarter-hour increments at $6 per quarter hour or fraction of a quarter hour.
- Postage: actual charges.
- Offsite retrieval: whatever the third-party storage vendor actually charges to retrieve and return the records.
These caps are ceilings, not entitlements. A business that spent less can charge less, and clerical time billed in fractions must round in quarter-hour blocks at the $6 rate rather than at some higher hourly equivalent.
The Reduced Fee for On-Site Copying
When the requesting party’s attorney or representative goes to the business’s location to inspect or copy the records in person, the per-page and per-hour schedule gives way to a flat cap. The maximum compliance fee in that situation is $15, plus whatever a third-party vendor actually charges to retrieve records held offsite. Microfilm is the exception: if the on-site records include microfilm, the $0.20-per-page microfilm rate applies instead of the $15 flat cap.1California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563 – Producing Business Records
For high-volume record productions, sending someone to copy on-site is often dramatically cheaper than paying $0.10 per page plus clerical time. The tradeoff is the time and travel cost of doing it that way.
When Payment Is Due
The business cannot demand prepayment before making the records available. It can, however, demand payment at the moment of actual delivery, and until that payment is made it has no obligation to hand the records over. In practical terms, the custodian assembles and prepares the records without an upfront check, but does not need to release them until the invoice is paid.1California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563 – Producing Business Records
The business must provide an itemized statement showing its reproduction and clerical costs. That itemization is what lets the requesting party check the math against the statutory caps.1California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563 – Producing Business Records
Disputing an Inflated Bill
If the charges look excessive, the requesting party has a remedy inside the statute itself. They can petition the court to recover any overpayment or to reduce the charges. Once the court issues an order to show cause, it takes jurisdiction over the witness and can hear testimony on whether the costs were excessive.1California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563 – Producing Business Records
Common areas of dispute are clerical time that seems inflated for the volume of records produced, per-page counts that don’t match what was delivered, and vendor retrieval charges that were not actually incurred. The itemized statement is the starting document; a party who pays the invoice and later concludes the charges were excessive can still go back to court to recover the overpayment.
One Witness Fee Per Subpoena
Section 1563 also caps witness compensation. A records production under this article requires only one witness fee and one mileage fee per subpoena, unless the witness and the requesting party agree otherwise. A business that tries to stack multiple witness fees on a single records subpoena has no statutory basis for doing so.1California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1563 – Producing Business Records
How Section 1563 Fits With the Rest of the Business Records Rules
Section 1563 handles the money side of the process. The rest of the statutory scheme handles timing, packaging, and admissibility, and those pieces matter to the same reader because a business that mishandles them can produce records that later get excluded or that arrive too late to use.
Deadlines Under Section 1560
In a civil case, the custodian has 15 days after receiving the subpoena to deliver the records. In a criminal case, the deadline is five days. The requesting party and the custodian can agree to a different timeline if that works better for both sides.2California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1560 – Production of Business Records
For a deposition subpoena for business records under Code of Civil Procedure 2020.430, the records go to the deposition officer named in the subpoena rather than to the court clerk, and they cannot be released before the date and time stated on the subpoena unless all parties stipulate otherwise.3California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 2020.430 – Deposition Subpoena for Business Records
Packaging Under Section 1560
Copies go into a sealed inner envelope labeled with the case title, case number, the witness’s name, and the date of the subpoena. That inner envelope goes inside a sealed outer envelope directed to the right recipient: the court clerk if the subpoena requires attendance in court, the deposition officer if it’s a deposition subpoena, or the officer or tribunal conducting the hearing in all other cases. The sealed package stays closed until the judge or presiding officer directs that it be opened at trial, deposition, or hearing, with all parties who have appeared present.2California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1560 – Production of Business Records
The Custodian’s Affidavit Under Section 1561
The affidavit is what lets the copies come in without live testimony from the custodian. It must state that the signer is the authorized custodian or another qualified witness with authority to certify the records, that the copies are true copies of everything described in the subpoena, that the records were prepared by business personnel in the ordinary course of business at or near the time of the act or event they document, that the records are identified, and how they were prepared. If the business has none of the records, or only some, the affidavit must say so and be delivered along with whatever records exist.4California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1561 – Affidavit of Custodian
When the requesting party’s attorney or representative picks up and copies the records on-site, that person must also provide a separate affidavit confirming the copies are true copies of everything delivered to them for copying.4California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1561 – Affidavit of Custodian
Admissibility Under Section 1562
Copies delivered with a proper affidavit are admissible to the same extent the originals would have been if the custodian had appeared and testified. The statements in the affidavit are presumed true, but the presumption is one affecting the burden of producing evidence, which means the opposing party can rebut it with proof that the records are untrustworthy.5California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1562 – Admissibility of Copies
One procedural step is easy to miss. The subpoenaing party must give each adverse party written notice at least 20 days before trial that business records are being subpoenaed under this procedure. An adverse party who serves a written demand within 10 days of receiving that notice can force production of the originals and live testimony from the custodian, rather than copies and an affidavit.5California Legislative Information. California Code EVID 1562 – Admissibility of Copies
Separate Rules Apply to Consumer, Employment, and Medical Records
Section 1563 only addresses cost. It does not handle privacy notice. When the subpoenaed records are personal records of a consumer, employment records, or protected health information under HIPAA, additional pre-service notice and objection procedures apply under Code of Civil Procedure 1985.3, 1985.6, and federal HIPAA rules. Those requirements sit on top of the Evidence Code 1560–1563 process, and satisfying the fee and packaging rules does not excuse skipping them.